Tag Archives: Fossil fuel power station

The Obama administration is effectively banning the construction of new coal-fired power plants, a move officials admit will have little to no impact on global warming.

“The EPA does not anticipate that this proposed rule will result in notable CO2 emission change,” the agency writes in its proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

“EPA knows there aren’t benefits,” Dan Simmons, director of regulatory and state affairs at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “EPA and environmentalists are being disingenuous when they claim this rule will have an impact on the climate or the environment.”

President Obama is considering a series of new executive actions aimed at working around a recalcitrant Congress, including policies that could allow struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages, provide new protections for gays and lesbians, make buildings more energy-efficient and toughen regulations for coal-fired power plants, according to people outside the White House involved in discussions on the issues.

One of the first orders is expected this week, when the Obama administration will call for the creation of new standards on what critical private-sector companies should do to protect their computer systems from hackers.

The moves underscore Obama’s increasingly aggressive use of executive authority, including 23 administrative actions on gun violence last month and previous orders that delayed deportations of young illegal immigrants and will lower student loan payments.

I have never been a fan of executive orders, and I never will.they place far too much power in the hands of one man. It seems that James Madison had similar concerns when he wrote this. “The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
–James Madison, Federalist 46

I am sure there is a valid place for such orders, but, those should be very specific and in my view rare.

President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has devoted an unprecedented number of bureaucrats to finalizing new anti-coal regulations that are set to be released at the end of November, according to a source inside the EPA.

More than 50 EPA staff are now crashing to finish greenhouse gas emission standards that would essentially ban all construction of new coal-fired power plants. Never before have so many EPA resources been devoted to a single regulation. The independent and non-partisan Manhattan Institute estimates that the EPA’s greenhouse gas coal regulation will cost the U.S. economy $700 billion.

The rush is a major sign of panic by environmentalists inside the Obama administration. If Obama wins, the EPA would have another four full years to implement their anti-fossil fuel agenda. But if Romney wins, regulators will have a very narrow window to enact a select few costly regulations that would then be very hard for a President Romney to undo.

Environmentalists at the EPA pulled this trick before in 2000 when the Clinton administration rushed out a finding that Mercury emissions from power plants were a growing public health threat pursuant to the Clean Air Act. That finding did not regulate power plants itself, but it did force the Bush administration to begin a lengthy regulatory process. The Obama EPA has estimated that this regulation alone will cost the U.S. economy $10.9 billion a year.

As most of us know, we own less and less, and the government owns and controls more and more of what we think of is rightfully ours. Here is a bizarro story. Now the government is claiming ownership over rainwater. You can bet Obama and the EPA must be grinning from ear to ear when they heard this story.

Control of water in the West has been a big issue with the drought. But now, we no longer control the rainwater that falls on our roofs.

The econuts are giddy — Barry’s EPA has finally released their new draconian air pollutionregulations,effectively banning most coal-fired power plants in the United States.

The rules require coal- and oil-fired power plants to lower emissions of 84 different toxic chemicals to levels no higher than those emitted by the cleanest 12% of plants.

We have three years in which to comply. Then, the power plants go dark and the lights go out.

Power plants are responsible for half of the mercury emissions in the United States, the EPA says.

So where will all that mercury go? Into Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs! The very same light bulbs Congress mandated, and then “temporarily” put on holduntil October of next year. Break one of those puppies in your living room and congratulations, your house is now a Superfund site.

This is what you get when you elect a president that has proven to be the biggest anti-business, anti-Capitalist president in our history. This is what you get when you allow politicians to by-pass Congress, and the will of the people. What they cannot legislate, they enact through out of control government agencies like the EPA!

This is why 2012 matters! This is why retaking the Senate matters so, and why retaking the White House matters! Folks our country is in peril, and this president, and his party, the Democrats, seem intent on driving the greatest nation on earth off the cliff of Failed Leftist Ideas.

They tell us that this is for our own good, of course that is what they always say. By golly, the EPA will regulate us into misery, suffering, and a lower standard of living, even if it kills us!Maggie’s Notebook has more

Things are about to get much worse for those already suffering, and some that are not suffering now, will be before the EPA is finished with us. We are told that the EPA will save lives with their new rules – 36,000 lives to be exact. Never mind that most of us are living longer, and the average lifespan increases every year, in spite of fossil fuels.

Ask about anyone, anywhere and you will hear that electricity is terribly expensive, and it is about to be less readily available. EPA regulations (not laws) will close many coal-fired plants that generate our Nation’s electricity. Those not closing will spend billions to upgrade to meet the EPA restrictions. Obama told us in 2008 that under his guidance our electricity will skyrocket, and that pronouncement is about to come true.

In 2009, 44.9% of America’s electricity was generated by coal. The next closest is 23.4% from natural gas. The Washington Post reports that the new EPA regulations will force the “closure of many coal plants” between now and 2017. No one seems to know how many, but American Electric Power has announced the shutdown of 5 of their plants. Improvements to those plants would cost $8 Billion – better to shut them down. The remainder will undergo (or are undergoing) upgrades which you and I will pay for, thanks to the Obama administration bypassing Congress.

Now the EPA and NAACP want to send America back to the “good old days.” Under a perverse notion of “environmental justice,” they are promoting tough new air quality rules that would shut down dozens of coal-fired power plants that make affordable AC possible for millions of poor and minority families.

According to them, coal-based electricity is “racist.” Minorities are more at risk because they often live near “dangerous,” older, more polluting power plants.

There is no excuse for the ridiculous “racism” and “justice” rhetoric, or the way EPA used cherry-picked data and computer models to conjure up health risks and benefits that exist only in virtual worlds. (Visit www.AffordablePowerAlliance.org for details.) Worse, the agency refused to consider the disastrous effects its draconian regulations will impose on families and businesses, due to skyrocketing electricity prices.

EPA’s rules will reduce electricity availability and send costs soaring 12% to 60% by 2015 – especially in the 26 states that depend on coal for 48-98% of their electricity. Families and businesses in those states currently pay less than half as much per kilowatt hour as those in low-coal, high-tax, hyper-regulated states. That means jobs, profits, balanced budgets – and protection against life-threatening heat and cold.

Under EPA/NAACP rules, all that would end. Power plant closures will cause deadly electricity shortages during periods of peak demand. Millions of poor and minority families will be unable to afford air conditioning when electricity is available. Our elderly will be particularly at risk, especially in inner cities, because energy costs hit them disproportionately and they are least able to survive heat and heatstroke.

Unbelievable isn’t it? Are these people this stupid? Or do they think a few hundred deaths due to severe weather are worth “going green? Do they NOT see what this will do to energy prices? Or how this will cause the price of everything to skyrocket? Or do they not care?

Here is another question we must ask of the Left. Why do they always say “power to the people” when everything they do takes power FROM the people?